Part 28 (1/2)
”I prefer to carry it on, sir,” said T. X. firmly.
”Have you found out anything more about Kara?”
T. X. nodded.
”All that I have discovered about him is eminently discreditable,”
he said. ”He seems to have had an ambition to occupy a very important position in Albania. To this end he had bribed and subsidized the Turkish and Albanian officials and had a fairly large following in that country. Bartholomew tells me that Kara had already sounded him as to the possibility of the British Government recognising a fait accompli in Albania and had been inducing him to use his influence with the Cabinet to recognize the consequence of any revolution. There is no doubt whatever that Kara has engineered all the political a.s.sa.s.sinations which have been such a feature in the news from Albania during this past year.
We also found in the house very large sums of money and doc.u.ments which we have handed over to the Foreign Office for decoding.”
Sir George thought for a long time.
Then he said, ”I have an idea that if you find your secretary you will be half way to solving the mystery.”
T. X. went out from the office in anything but a joyous mood. He was on his way to lunch when he remembered his promise to call upon John Lexman.
Could Lexman supply a key which would unravel this tragic tangle? He leant out of his taxi-cab and redirected the driver. It happened that the cab drove up to the door of the Great Midland Hotel as John Lexman was coming out.
”Come and lunch with me,” said T. X. ”I suppose you've heard all the news.”
”I read about Kara being killed, if that's what you mean,” said the other. ”It was rather a coincidence that I should have been discussing the matter last night at the very moment when his telephone bell rang--I wish to heaven you hadn't been in this,” he said fretfully.
”Why?” asked the astonished a.s.sistant Commissioner, ”and what do you mean by 'in it'?”
”In the concrete sense I wish you had not been present when I returned,”
said the other moodily, ”I wanted to be finished with the whole sordid business without in any way involving my friends.”
”I think you are too sensitive,” laughed the other, clapping him on the shoulder. ”I want you to unburden yourself to me, my dear chap, and tell me anything you can that will help me to clear up this mystery.”
John Lexman looked straight ahead with a worried frown.
”I would do almost anything for you, T. X.,” he said quietly, ”the more so since I know how good you were to Grace, but I can't help you in this matter. I hated Kara living, I hate him dead,” he cried, and there was a pa.s.sion in his voice which was unmistakable; ”he was the vilest thing that ever drew the breath of life. There was no villainy too despicable, no cruelty so horrid but that he gloried in it. If ever the devil were incarnate on earth he took the shape and the form of Remington Kara. He died too merciful a death by all accounts. But if there is a G.o.d, this man will suffer for his crimes in h.e.l.l through all eternity.”
T. X. looked at him in astonishment. The hate in the man's face took his breath away. Never before had he experienced or witnessed such a vehemence of loathing.
”What did Kara do to you?” he demanded.
The other looked out of the window.
”I am sorry,” he said in a milder tone; ”that is my weakness. Some day I will tell you the whole story but for the moment it were better that it were not told. I will tell you this,” he turned round and faced the detective squarely, ”Kara tortured and killed my wife.”
T. X. said no more.
Half way through lunch he returned indirectly to the subject.
”Do you know Gathercole?” he asked.
T. X. nodded.
”I think you asked me that question once before, or perhaps it was somebody else. Yes, I know him, rather an eccentric man with an artificial arm.”